A top US diplomat Friday urged the Indian corporate sector to match the American contribution of $7 million for HIV/AIDS programmes this year.

"I hope that you, as Indian corporate leaders, will join the American business community to rise to the challenge by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George W. Bush to match the $7 million HIV/AIDS funding this year," US Charge d'Affaires Robert O. Blake said here.

He was addressing a gathering of industry representatives at a meet on "Accelerating Business Response to HIV/AIDS" organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry.

Blake recounted that Bush and Mammohan Singh had agreed to work together to tackle global challenges through new initiatives on democracy promotion, disaster relief and HIV/AIDS.

"With respect to HIV/AIDS, the two leaders agreed to continue to expedite the review of generic anti-retroviral drugs -- eight of 10 approved are Indian -- and explore new opportunities for public-private collaboration on AIDS research and enhance capacity to conduct clinical trials in India," said Blake.

President Bush has announced $7 million to catalyse a corporate response and create a capital fund to scale up prevention and control initiatives, he said.

"The US has provided India $30 million towards AIDS control in 2004 and the US embassy is working with NACO to set up the HIV/AIDS corporate fund that will be managed by a professional private financial institution," said Blake.